


A Truly "Holy" Crusade

by TheLadyRebel



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Assassin's Creed (Video Game), Templars, knights tremplar, templar knight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-23 00:35:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17070146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadyRebel/pseuds/TheLadyRebel
Summary: The thoughts of a Knight Templar as he reflects upon what he has done.





	A Truly "Holy" Crusade

Corpses, hundreds of them; lifeless, rotting cadavers piled atop one another at the village's gates. They were being prepared for a cremation of sorts. A quick, simple way to rid the world of their "filth". Saracens they were, yet I felt I was one of the few who had deemed them human beings; equals to even those who had been and were nobles of this land, of our land.

When I took up the Mantle of a Knight Templar I did it for God, but this...is past insanity. The inhumane slaughter of innocents, the endless bloodshed that has erupted along the borders of England and in Jerusalem; certainly this could not be considered "holy".

We were informed that this Crusade was for the good of many, and not just for the King. The Pope traveled from Italy to teach us that our Way was not wrong if done in the name of God. He claimed that, after we had been absolved of our sins, we would reside in the highest place in Heaven. We were told that God, Himself, would come to us before we perished; that He would call His angels and escort us to Heaven to be with Him and our loved ones, living out the rest of our days in paradise. I was starting to doubt the Pope's word was absolute truth.

I knelt down beside the still form of a young boy. A steel sword protruded from his midsection, pinning him to the ground. His hands were still clenched tightly around the weapon's blade, although the wound he had suffered had killed him when it was afflicted. His body had not yet been piled among the others. As I stared into the emptiness of his dull, spiritless eyes I wondered what this Crusade had truly been for.

Perhaps King Richard had simply wished to exert his power over Europe and the Holy Land. Maybe he merely wished to show challenge to Saladin. Who would really know but the Lionheart himself? I supposed I'd never discover the reality of the situation in my lifetime. I just hoped that others would in the near future and put an end to this madness.

During the tenth Crusade; my father, a Knight himself, would say to me "A Templar Knight is truly a fearless Knight, and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armor of faith, just as his body is protected by the armor of steel." He would speak of times when he went to war in the Holy Land; how he would kill Saracens for the greater good of England, and how he could not wait for me to take up the same Mantle that he fought for each day. My father had perished on a trek to the Holy Land the very year that I had joined the Crusades due to a surprise attack by Saracen bandits. I vowed to myself that I would fight in his name and help England smite the Saracens for what they had done to my father, and that we would take back what is rightfully ours.

The young man that lie before me was lifted by a couple of Knights Hospitaller that had been assigned to assist us on the siege of the village. They carelessly tossed his corpse onto the pile and our Captain lowered a torch to it, setting it ablaze in a matter of seconds. Along with the flames rose the putrescent stench of burning flesh. I had to lift an arm to shield my face so that I would not vomit from the fumes. Others beside me had not been so lucky, as a sickness had already beset them.

Watching the bodies burn, I had felt no less better about what I had done. I had lifted a blade against many of the villagers that were now rotted and aflame; some, I remembered, had been women and their children. Unfortunately, I was one of many who obeyed the Rule of the Knights Templar. Leaving the Order was not a viable option for me unless I wished to face execution.

The more beneficial of my options would be to keep myself silenced, to say nothing of the emotions that I felt. I had already taken a vow of silence the day I had joined the Order. Keeping my lips sealed would certainly not be such a trying task.

Yet it surely seemed that way...

**Author's Note:**

> This was written in 2011 and I'm not really sure where I was trying to lead it...


End file.
